Olive Grafting

[Andrew Legg]

Hi Everyone,

Question: Can you graft a branch onto an olive? Do whip or thread grafts work on Olea europaea ssp. Africana?

Thanks,

Andrew

[Ninja]

Yes. They have been grafting olives since bible's time. Using cultivated olive seedlings and grafting it onto wild olive stock. Saving plenty of years to produce big trees. They graft the buds of pencil thick 2 year old whips onto old wood. Thread grafts will work with any plant if you don't knock of the bud while threading and seal the joint good so there's no die-back of the cambium. Make sure the drill bit don't burn the cambium while drilling. This might give poor results.

[Graeme]

Yes. They have been grafting olives since bible's time. Using cultivated olive seedlings and grafting it onto wild olive stock. Saving plenty of years to produce big trees. They graft the buds of pencil thick 2 year old whips onto old wood. Thread grafts will work with any plant if you don't knock of the bud while threading and seal the joint good so there's no die-back of the cambium. Make sure the drill bit don't burn the cambium while drilling. This might give poor results.

Not sure about thread grafting on Olives yet. I have done a few on my trees here over the past 2 or 3 years. The first one I cut off to soon and obviously the graft died. I had another die on its own last month, been on for a couple of years. I still have two grafts on seperate trees, both have been done for around 2 years now, they appear to be growing well, but do not appear to have grafted to the trunk yet, They have swollen around the hole in the trunk, but as said do not appear to be joining in with the trunk party. Whip grafts appear to be a very easy method of grafting Olives, with no real skill needed to complete a successful graft, which confuses me regarding the thread grafts. Anyone offer advice??

[ozzy]

There are a lot of old olive groves around here and a few of them have cut all the branches off their trees and grafted on one of the newer varieties rather than rip up their trees and re plant.
I want to know if you can graft another species on to an olive stump

[Ninja]

Interesting that whip works better than the tread graft